Revenge ABC Wiki:Policies
These basic rules apply to the whole wiki and are definite. These guidelines apply to adding images, making pages, editing the wiki, general user behavior, and everything in between. Remember, all we want is a fun atmosphere and these'll help with that... hopefully. If you have any questions, approach the administrators. Article Guidelines General *Articles or pages made must all be directly related to the series or the wiki. *Before creating new pages, make sure it does not already exist by searching for it or asking an admin if in doubt. *Other pages should only be linked on its first use and only once per section/heading in a page. If the article is considerably short, do not keep linking anymore. *Content on character pages should only be summarized. Details should be added to the episode pages. *Italicize the show title and its episodes. When used in articles, put the linked episode title inside quotation marks and italicize. (e.g. "Pilot") *When moving pages, if it is a major page you are moving, make sure a staff member has approved of it, particularly since sometimes, if you are redirecting to an already existing page, a delete is necessary. If you don't think an approval is necessary, at least make sure that the move is reasonable, like if it's misnamed, misspelled, or if there's a better name for it. Format *To see what the proper format for character page should be, see the Sample Character Article. *To see what the proper format for an episode page should be, see the Sample Episode Article. Grammar and Spelling In order to communicate information effectively and to maintain a professional touch, proper use of grammar and spelling is vital. Edits with poor grammar and misspellings may be undone, so please take a moment to re-read what you have written and use spell check. Cite your references Although citations can cause some frustration for the writer, the process is simple and necessary to differentiate between fact and fanfiction and can also help readers determine when exactly an event first occurred or was referenced in the series. In the case of real-world information, it is vital to distinguish fact from opinion, rumor, and vandalism. Unnecessary content Fanfiction stories, non-canon topics, opinons, assumptions and theories, rumors, and other false information do not belong to articles. However, you are free to share these through blogs or your user pages. Categorization Guidelines Characters *Characters *Male/Female Characters *Main/ *Minor Characters/ *Supporting Characters *Deceased Characters: In case the character is dead. *Season # Characters Families *Families - check this page for under family categories Relationships *Relationships *Family Relationship *Friendly Relationship *Romantic Relationship *Enemy Relationship Locations *Locations Other *Organizations *Events *Other Actors *Cast *Main Cast *Female Cast *Male Cast Episode Pages *Episodes *Season # Episodes *Flashback Episodes *Upcoming Episodes *Specials Galleries *Galleries *Episode/Character Galleries Transcripts *Episode Transcripts *Season # Transcripts Image and Video Policy *ALL images and videos must be directly related to the show; this includes episode stills, promotional photos, behind the scene photos, and actor photos for images, and promos, sneak peeks, official clips, music videos, and cast interviews for videos. *The use of official ABC promotion photos are allowed under Fair Use; however, ABC reserves the right to ask us to remove any or all pictures from this wiki. *If you are uploading images for a X episode, it is recommended to name the image X_1, X_2, etc. (for example Pilot_1, Pilot_2). *If you upload an image, place it in all applicable galleries, and place it in its proper chronological place. *Avoid uploading duplicates. Please check the gallery you intend to put the image in, and see if the photo already is on the page. For videos, please check the videos category. Duplicate photos, and videos, added to a gallery will be deleted from the wiki. *Inappropriate images are disallowed. *Do not upload images just to place on a user page. This is a waste of server space. Any such images will be deleted. *Fanarts and fanmade videos for the show must only be uploaded with the consent of the creator. These will not be used on articles, though only for sharing. From now on, only images from the books, movies, graphic novels, franchise, and other official releases related to the series will be allowed on articles, and the only non-canon images allowed on the wiki are those used for dream-casting polls. *Do not upload images with an ABC or City logo. *Do not upload images from Tumblrs or Seriable. *Do not upload images from Fanpop. *The file extensions .PNG, .GIF, and .JPG are the standard requirements for Wikia. Galleries *Galleries are to contain images only. This means no GIF images please. *When taking screenshots to save as photos and upload onto any gallery, please utilize the entire screen. Do not upload irregular shaped photos that only capture part of the screen as those are not acceptable, and will be subject to deletion. *The Galleries pictures should be either pictures of the character or of the episode from the show and not of other profiles of that character. Please, if you are cropping a photo to make it smaller to possibly use as a character's profile template picture, do not sort the photo into a gallery. As stated above, we do not put irregularly shaped photos into galleries. *If creating a Gallery page, please make sure to formulate it so that it looks like the other pages, with a Gallery Header and the pictures below. *Character galleries should include headers for episodes the character appeared in, in chronological order, and photos should be arranged chronologically in each episode section. *Episode galleries should have episode stills, promo photos, deleted scenes and behind the scenes photos in separate sections. The episode stills section should be in chronological order. Do not sort promo photos into any character galleries. Infobox Images *If you would like to change an infobox image on a character's page, we require that you post in the FORUM, and get a consensus on what image should be used first. Note that in doing this, the image's photo page link on the wiki itself can be added as a link in the comment, but do not post the actual photo in the comment. This helps prevent edit wars over images. *This wiki does not use behind the scenes photos as infobox template photos. In other words, those type of photos should not be used on character/item/location pages as profile images. *Photos for character article display photos must only be named like so: Photo Character'sUsualName (e.g. Photo Emily.png). If a character article's primary image is to be replaced, just update the current file by overwriting it. User Behavior Vandalism, Spamming, and Blocking Vandalism will not be tolerated. '''Vandalism is any type of edit that is destructive to the article that may be in the form of is deleting a large portion of the page without proper reason, or, worse, replacing it with inappropriate information or randomness. If someone becomes a vandal, the admins have the right to block the person for an indefinite amount of time, depending on the severity of the act. '''Comments on pages are expected to be appropriate. '''This means that there should be no inappropriate language, the comment should not be irrelevant, and should not be inflammatory. '''In the case of an edit war, the two opposing people are expected to solve their problem for themselves. If they cannot do that, an admin will step in. Blocking is the method by which administrators may technically prevent users from editing. Blocks are used to prevent damage or disruption, not to punish users. Blocks sometimes are used as a deterrent, to discourage whatever behavior led to the block and encourage a productive editing environment. Request block Any user may request a block at the Administrator noticeboard for major incidents of vandalism or disruption. Users requesting blocks should supply credible evidence of the circumstances warranting a block. Administrators are never obliged to place a block and are free to investigate the situation themselves. Because blocks may be reviewed and appealed, it is often important that the blocking and reviewing administrators each communicate with and take care to inform the other. Reasons for blocking *Persistent personal attacks *Persistent vandalism *Persistent incivility *Persistent harassment *Persistent spamming *Edit warring or revert warring *Sockpuppetry *Failure to observe policies or guidelines *Accounts with inappropriate usernames *Editing for the sole purpose of obtaining badges *Use of explicit profanities *Posting of vulgar, nude, or other inappropriate images *Spamming links and advertisements not directly related to the wiki *Under 13 years old *Using sockpuppets to circumvent a ban or block Duration of blocks Each administrator blocks at their own discretion. However, the following should be kept in mind: *In general, the first block should be of a reasonably short duration, with the length increasing progressively every time a further block is required. *Anonymous users should never be blocked indefinitely. If you see any anonymous user blocked indefinitely, report it on the administrator noticeboard. *Sockpuppets that have been used maliciously should, and will, always be blocked indefinitely. The original account's ban/block will also be extended further if not already. Editing Conflicts Assume good faith This rule is a fundamental rule of all wikis. Since we allow anyone to edit, it follows that we assume that most people who work on the project are trying to help it, not hurt it. If this weren't true, a wiki project would be doomed from the beginning. Particularly, avoid reverting good faith edits. Only resort to reverting on very obvious vandalism or something that not only you would disagree on. When you can reasonably assume that something is a well-intentioned error, correct it without just reverting it or labeling it as vandalism. When you disagree with someone, consider using message walls to explain yourself, and give others the opportunity to do the same. This can avoid misunderstandings and prevent problems from escalating. If there is a problem, it's best to ask the user about the issue first, then take any additional steps if need be. There are, of course, limits to these. In the case that edits are clearly vandalism or that edits against the wiki's policy persist after a warning, see grounds for blocking under User Behavior. Protection Administrators can protect and unprotect pages. Protection of a page or image can mean that a non-admin cannot edit or move it. The majority of pages on all Wikia should remain publicly editable, and not protected. Pages may, however, be temporarily or permanently protected for legal reasons (for example, license texts should not be changed) or in cases of extreme vandalism or edit warring. Uses *Protecting highly vandalised pages, such as the main page on busy wikis. *Maintaining the integrity of the site's logo and favicon. *Maintaining the integrity of key copyright and license pages. *Maintaining the integrity of past press releases. *Protecting the often-used texts in the MediaWiki namespace (these are protected automatically). *Protecting documents such as minutes or policies that have gone through a formal approval process. *Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an edit war, upon request. *Protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism or persistent edits by a banned user. There is no need to protect personal css and js pages like user/monobook.css or user/wikia.js. Only the accounts associated with these pages (and admins) are able to edit them. Less than full protection This is an example of what you might do temporarily if several different IP addresses are vandalising a page. The MediaWiki software now lets administrators pick several options short of full protection. These are good for temporary protection, particularily when resisting persistent vandalism or repeated spam. You might also want to use these to reduce vandalism on high-profile pages (such as featured articles or highly used templates), while still allowing as many legitimate users as possible to edit. Full protection is when only administrators (sysops) can move or edit a page. Most pages should be not protected, meaning that default settings apply to both moving and editing. Discussions In all of this, please refrain from capitalizing unnecessarily. Not only does it seem like you are shouting or trying to make a point you are obviously not making, it makes everything else look messy. Also, avoid starting conflicts. Comments At this point, comments on articles have been deactivated. Blogs We encourage the use of blogs to share your insights. Forums We encourage the use of forums if you want to start a topic and you want other users to pitch in.